


When Worlds Collide

by kelex



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 05:44:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4865282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two Doctors collide just in time to save a planet from destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Worlds Collide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sporehead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sporehead/gifts).



> for waltzing-with-my-inner-geek, and the timepetalsprompts fic exchange

"I promise, you're going to love it. The Great Edrona Bakery on Vinalus Nine has the best cakes in nine galaxies. Fluffy as a cloud, melts on your tongue like angel wings, and is the most delicious taste you can imagine."

"Is it chocolate?" Rose asked eagerly, leaning over the console. "I _really_ love chocolate."

"Could be--tastes different to everybody, every time you taste it," explained the Doctor. "I had a fantastic raspberry crème the last time I was here."

"Oh, I can't wait!" Rose was excited, right up until she saw the Doctor frowning at the TARDIS control console. "What's wrong, Doctor?"

"That's funny. The TARDIS doesn't seem to want to land," he murmured, flipping switches and throwing levers as the TARDIS protested. "She's cranky!"

"What's wrong with her?" Rose asked, patting the corner of the console gently.

"I don't know. I think it's all right, now. I just changed the landing coordinates now and she's doing all right." The TARDIS groaned to a stop, thudding softly. "You ready?"

"For cake? You bet!" Rose bounded down the ramp, determined to be the first to open the TARDIS doors. As soon as she did, the TARDIS was flooded with delicious bakery smells. She smelled fresh chocolate chips cookies, something sweet and cinnamon-y, and just a hint of citrusy fruit. "Oh my God, that smells so good."

"Like I said!" The Doctor straightened his jumper, linked his fingers with Rose's, and pulled her towards the bakery. "Come on, then." He patted down all his jacket pockets, and came up with a credit stick similar to the one on Satellite Five. "Treats are on me."

\-----

"Donna Noble! Welcome to Vinalus Nine, home of the Great Edrona Bakery, the best bakery in ten galaxies! You can get anything you want, and every slice of cake or sweet roll tastes totally different every single time."

Donna stuck her head out of the TARDIS, only to find the Doctor looking around like he was expecting someone. "Oi, spaceman! We expecting company?"

The Doctor's attention snapped back to Donna at once. "No, no, no, not really expecting anyone. Just… you know. Always on the lookout for a familiar face."

Donna was only paying half-attention. "Cinnamon rolls. And molasses tarts. Granddad got them for us every Christmas and Easter. Cookies, too, sugar cookies!"

At that, the Doctor turned from Donna and the TARDIS. A memory had flared at the mention of cinnamon, and he ruthlessly pushed it back down. Rose had _adored_ sticky-sweet cinnamon pastries. But it was Donna here, not rose. "Well, shall we go, then?"

Donna took the Doctor's elbow. "So what do you smell?"

His instinct was to brush off the question, but he'd learned from Martha not to do that. "Oh, same as you, I expect. Cinnamon buns, lemon tarts, maybe a hint of raspberry. Had a great raspberry crème pie here one time." And a heavy dose of silverberries, a favorite of his mother. Left in Gallifrey's two suns to dry, silverberries grew more flavorful and would release a tangy nectar when bitten.

Oh, Donna knew that faraway look. "Something from home, too?" she guessed. Closed-mouth he could be sometimes, but Donna was learning how to read him. Most things he'd chatter about until the stars burned out; Gallifrey, his personal past, and the young woman named Rose all clammed him up faster than anything. 

He ignored that. "Come on, there's the queue for the ATM. Well, credits exchange, but it's the same idea. After that, you can have anything you want, much as you want of it." Because Rose had put--but Rose wasn't here. 

"Are you calling me a pig?" Donna demanded, hands on her hips although her eyes were twinkling with amusement.

"What? No! I don't--I didn't--where did you even get that? All I said was--" The Doctor was so distressed and focused on Donna that he barely registered the knot of people passing by, including an excited blonde in a Union Jack shirt and a gruff man in a leather jacket.

Donna didn't notice them either; she was too busy yanking the Doctor's chain. "As much as I want! Like I'm going to gorge myself!"

"I-I-I just meant it's unlimited credit." He wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Even if you want the Diamond Cake, you can have it!"

"That's more like it." Donna smoothed her shirt front and slid her hands over her hips. "Mind you, life with you means more than enough running, I can splurge!"

It was the Doctor's opinion that Donna looked just fine to him, no need to diet, but he wasn't dim enough to offer that thought unsolicited. "On anything you like, sky's the limit, nothing's too good for you, Donna Noble!"

"Oh, shut it." Donna rolled her eyes at the Doctor's theatrics, and shoved him forward when the queue moved. Most of the people in the ATM queue were humanoid-ish, or at least, bipedal. "By the way, what kind of aliens run the place, you never said."

"The Vinalusi, of course. They started out on Vinalus Two, and eventually colonized ten of the fourteen planets in the Vinalus system," explained the Doctor. "Excellent space-faring people, good in a crisis. No temper. Lovely chess players."

"But they're not, I don't know, dog people or bird people or big old blobs of ooze or anything?" Donna was very curious.

"Oh, well, I guess you could call them bird people," replied the Doctor after a moment. "They've got bird-like heads, but they're psychic. Sort of like the TARDIS, but they broadcast instead of going directly into your head. They talk in chirps and tweets, but you'll hear your own language."

Donna tried to wrap her head around the idea of telepathic bird people while the Doctor worked his sonic-screwdriver magic at the ATM. After a couple of seconds, the ATM spit out a silver unlimited credit stick, and the Doctor grinned. "Allons-y, Donna Noble! Desserts await!"

"You're completely mad," Donna accused with a laugh.

"Course, that's why it's fun!" Grabbing her hand so as not to get separated, the Doctor dove headlong into the throng of people entering the Great Edrona Bakery.

\-----

Rose drew in a deep breath. Every inhale was like sucking in a bit of heaven, and she leaned back against the Doctor's shoulder. "Oh, let's get one of everything! What we don't finish, we'll take back to the TARDIS for later!"

"Maybe not _everything_ , but all right! Whatever you want, Rose, it's yours. Maybe they'll even have silverberry. You'll like silverberry, it's sweet. And a little bit tart, but delicious."

"Where--oh, there's the line. You go get in line, and I'm going to find the loo," Rose decided.

"Might want to go back to the TARDIS for that. Vinalusi don't exactly believe in privacy. Or gendered bathrooms."

Rose blinked. "Okay, TARDIS it is. Be right back." She smacked a kiss on the Doctor's cheek and started weaving back through the crowd.

The Doctor looked at the length of the line and sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. The things he did for Rose Tyler, and she didn't even have to ask. "Hurry up, now!"

\-----

Donna! Come back here, you don't want to do that!" Sometimes, humans were like little children. Take your eyes off them, and they wander off. "Donna!"

"What do you want?" shouted back. "Just going to wash up!"

"I wouldn't--ah, well, you're not listening anyway." Heaving a deep sigh, he gave up shouting for Donna. "You'll find out--oh, there she goes." He winced at the shriek that couldn't be anyone else. It wasn't hard to follow the ginger streak shoving people out the way. "All tidied up now?" he asked innocently.

"You! They were--it was--I--it--TENTACLES!" Donna could barely speak in her outrage. "Bloody tentacles waving about, no stalls, and I'm pretty sure it was co-ed!"

"I did try and warn you," the Doctor pointed out.

"We're going _back_ to Earth and you're going to get one of those hand sanitizer dispensers for the TARDIS. And I'm carrying a bottle everywhere we go from now on!" Donna's voice was still huffy, but she was starting to calm down. 

For his part, the Doctor was trying--and mostly failing--to hide his amusement. And he knew better than to argue. "You want antibacterial?"

"Don't get clever with me, Doctor."

"Me? Never." At that, the Doctor's grin broke free. "Come on, we'll be getting close to the outside menu boards soon. You can see what all they've got," he wheedled.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry. I just need to nip by there. Pardon me, please."

Everything about the Doctor froze when he heard that voice. Donna was asking him something, but her voice faded to nothing. The bustling crowd noise was a near-silent buzzing in the back of his mind.

Because that was Rose Tyler's voice. Impossible, improbable, possibly paradoxical, but that was _Rose._ A voice he'd never imagined hearing again, and both his hearts beat faster. He didn't even realize he'd closed his eyes until he felt Donna shaking him. Shaking hard, because his jaw snapped and his teeth rattled. "Stop it! I'm fine. Donna!" He caught her had just before she slapped him. 

"What was that?" For the first time, Donna sounded… scared. "Doctor, what happened? You just went… I don't know, sort of blank."

He realized Donna had pulled them out of the line, and he grabbed her hand. "Listen to me, Donna. My name is John Smith. Mr. John Smith, all right? No. Noble. John Noble," he amended quickly, because Smith was a known alias. "Please, just this once, all right?"

Though Donna had just about a thousand questions, to her credit, she didn't ask them. She just tightened her grip on his hand. "All right, but just this once. And we're cousins, mind. Not Mr. and Mrs., not brother and sister." And maybe she still hadn't forgiven Caecillius.

"Fine, fine, fine, cousins then." Without anything further, the Doctor started pushing people and aliens out of his way, leaving Donna to make hasty but polite excuses. Though he knew he shouldn't be, he was following Rose, for one last chance to see her.

She wouldn't know him, and that might kill him. But it would be worth it, just to see her, hear her voice, shake her hand and feel her touch just one more time.

Donna was moving fast to keep up with him, and she really wanted to know what the Doctor was up to. The last time she'd seen him like this, focused and uncaring, was on her disaster of a wedding day. She'd had to stop him then; she could stop him again if it came to that. And she was getting concerned that it just might. "Doctor, tell me--"

"It's Rose." That's all he had time to answer.

Donna's abrupt halt nearly yanked the Doctor's arm out of the socket. "What you mean, it's Rose? Your Rose?"

"Of course, my Rose." Like there would ever be any other. "I have to see her, Donna. I have to know why she's here, what's going on. I have to know she's safe."

Donna didn't budge. "You can't cross your own timeline, you've said so. Besides, if you'd met her here before you'd remember, wouldn't you?"

"I will have after it's happened. It's only happening now, so if Rose is here with my earlier self, I won't remember it until it's happened. Time is always changing, Donna. It's changing every second." Seconds he didn't have to spare.

She had more questions, but she could tell the Doctor's patience wasn't going to last. "All right then, let's go find Rose." Truthfully, Donna was very curious about Rose Tyler, the girl who inspired the Doctor.

\-----

"Miss me?" Rose popped back in beside her Doctor, lacing their fingers together.

"Course not," he teased with a grin. Truth was, he knew down to the microsecond when Rose had left and when she'd returned. "Missed a bit of excitement in the ladies'--heard her screaming way over here."

"Sorry I missed that. Turn out all right? No big aliens in people suits or anything?" Rose was, at the moment, selfishly concerned about their outing.

"Nah, probably more like somebody got a fright. Some of the aliens here have tentacles, you know. Nothing like a good tentacle in personal places to give you a fright. Oh, thanks." He took a thin tablet-like screen and passed it to Rose. "Menu."

Rose dove right in, not realizing the Doctor's head had snapped up and he was scanning the crowd alertly.

\-----

The Doctor ground to a halt about forty feet and a hundred people away from Rose and her Doctor. He could see his former self scanning the crowd. "Right. He knows someone's here, but not that it's me. Him. Me. Whatever. We're the same Doctor, so I don't feel like another Time Lord, but. Oooh. I feel different." He made a face, and was explaining it for Donna's benefit while massaging his temples. "Going to give myself a migraine at this rate."

Donna gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze. "Why don't you let me talk to her? Tell her I heard a story about the Doctor and Rose, get her over here to meet you," she offered quietly.

The Doctor was genuinely thankful, and he gave Donna a big hug. "He'll never let her out of his sight. And he'll know who I am the minute he sees me."

"We'll figure it out." Donna didn't let go of the Doctor, and her heart went out to him in an instant. She was glad, though, that she was still holding onto him when the ground suddenly pitched under their feet.

\-----

Rose crashed into the Doctor when the quake hit. The ground rolled, and people were thrown every which way. Tiny cracks started to show in the walls, and wider ones in the floor. "Doctor!"

"Rose!" He yanked her up to her feet, and steadied her through a rough aftershock. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What was that?" She clung to the Doctor as a second aftershock rolled through. 

"Earthquake, obviously. Come on, I got to get back to the TARDIS scanner, see what's going on."

As they were talking, a skinny man in a brown suit and long coat ran up beside them with a ginger in tow. "Meteorite. We were outside when it hit. Looked like other side of the planet, just over the horizon."

Doctor stared at Doctor until Donna broke in. "Donna. Donna Noble, and this is my cousin John." 

Since the Doctor wasn't speaking, Rose did. "Well, I'm Rose. Rose Tyler, and this is the Doctor. Listen, I really think you should--"

"We can help," blurted John Noble, though he was still staring at his earlier face. "But we'd better get outside in a hurry." Without thinking, he grabbed Rose's hand.

Time, for a moment, seemed to stop. For a single, irresponsible microinstant, he wanted to take Rose away in _his_ TARDIS, timelines be damned. Especially when Rose tightened her grip on his hand.

"Dumbo, get a move on!" Donna shouted. The earlier incarnation of the Doctor had Donna by one hand, Rose by the other. For all intents, he was the caboose as they began to run. Outside, chaos was reigning. The four of them were being jostled together, and John Noble nearly lost his grip on Rose's hand. 

Then it was yanked out entirely by the other Doctor. "Get back to your TARDIS. Find where the meteor hit." A desperate question was in his eyes, but he knew it wasn't the time to ask it. "We'll meet you there."

Donna dragged her Doctor back as Rose and her Doctor started running. "Well? Move it, Doctor, let's go!"

"Right." He knew he'd have to push the distraction down, but one final thought tormented him. _For the second time, I let her slip away! I had her hand in mine and I let her go._

Inside the TARDIS, Rose was clinging to the console as the Doctor scanned for the meteorite crash. "That man, John Noble. Do you know him?"

"Nope. Never met him before," he answered truthfully. "But yeah, I know who he is," he amended, flipping levers and switches to get them moving.

"So who is he?" Rose demanded, feeling the TARDIS shudder into motion.

"Gonna land right beside the crater, see what's going on in there, so hang on!" The Doctor ignored Rose's question as he piloted the short hop. She'd find out quick enough anyway. 

\---

Back in their own TARDIS, Donna's Doctor was all business. He threw his jacket over the handrails, and she can see for herself whatever turmoil he'd been feeling was driven down deep. He was a dervish whirling around the console, but what he found on the console scanner stops him cold. There was a second chunk of rock on the way, enough to split the planet in half if it hits. 

He looks at Donna with deep regret. "You go and tell that other Doctor exactly this: There's another one. Bigger. Big enough to land on. I'm going to stop it. You help him fix the planet, and he'll take you home."

"You're talking like I'm never going to see you again." The Doctor's blank face had the opposite effect; Donna panicked. "No. I'm not. Together, right? That's why I'm here." Donna refused to budge. She was not going to let this happen again, she was not going to let the Doctor die alone. 

There was literally no time to argue and the TARDIS materialized beside the crater. A few feet away, the other Doctor's TARDIS had already landed.

Both Doctors emerged at the same time, followed by their Companions. Rose's eyes grew large as she saw the two TARDISes, and she grabbed her Doctor's elbow.

For the moment, he ignored it, instead focusing on his future self. "There's another one coming."

Donna was inching her way towards Rose, who recoiled just a bit before relaxing and reaching for Donna's arm.

"Yeah, I know. I'm taking a chance. I'm gonna land on it and see if I can deflect it. Watch out for Donna, will you? Take her home safe if I…"

"Course. Rose and me, we'll work on this one that's landed. I think I can use the TARDIS engine to pull it out and let the plates fuse back together."

The Doctor calling himself John Noble just nodded; unsurprisingly, he'd had the same idea. "Should work, yeah." He turned to take what he fully expected to be his last look at Rose. 

Rose's Doctor couldn't help the jealousy when he saw how John looked at Rose. But John waited until Donna and Rose were fully engrossed in a conversation, and then entered his TARDIS alone. 

The whooshing of the engines caught Donna's attention, and she ran towards the dematerializing TARDIS.

The Doctor caught her around the waist and held her back until the TARDIS was gone. Then he let her go, which earned him a slap. "What was that for?"

"Lettin' him go off alone! He needs somebody to stop him doing something stupid, like dying!" Rose touched Donna's shoulder, and she didn't _mean_ to snap. "What?"

Rose swallowed hard. "That man, he's the Doctor, right? Like my Doctor, but different?"

"Yeah. He is." Her eyes turned to the sky. "And he's my best mate. He shouldn't be alone up there."

"Then don't write him off just yet. My Doctor's pulled a few miracles out of his pocket; I bet yours has too?"

That, Donna couldn't argue with. "Yeah. You're right. If anybody knows what the Doctor can do, you do." She ran her fingertips under her eyes just in case, and looked back at the Doctor and Rose Tyler. "Let's get busy, yeah?"

\-----

On the rock in space, the Doctor was able to get some much better readings, including a more precise trajectory. He didn't need to move the rock by much, but it was also much bigger than the one that had already crashed. He wouldn't be dragging it anywhere.

He studied the numbers on the screen until--"Oh! I'm thick!" He slapped himself on the forehead. "We skip it! We wrap the extrapolator shielding around the leading edge, angle she shape of the shield exactly thirty-four-point-seven-two degrees, and it skips right off the atmosphere into deep space!"

When nobody applauded his brilliance, the Doctor looked around briefly before remembering that he'd left Donna back on Vinalus, safe with Rose and… well, the Doctor. He quickly got back to work.

It was going to short out the extrapolator, but that was all right. It was borrowed technology anyway, and eventually he'd tinker up a replacement or a fix for it. Saving the whole planet and all the lives of all the people on it was more important than a piece of replaceable tech. 

The timing was going to be the problem. If he skipped too early, then it was going to collide with one of the satellite moons of Vinalus 8; he was going to have to get the exact timing perfect. The simulations showed exactly how to alter the shield to buy himself those few extra microseconds, and he patted the console. "Well, this isn't going to be fun, but we can do it." There seemed to come a reassuring thrum from the TARDIS engine core, and he grinned. "Safeties off, extrapolator on full, shield compression on high, altering the frequency thirty-six-point-eight-five degrees… now!" 

The entire room exploded in a shower of sparks, and the internal gravity dampers groaned at the sudden additional weight. The Doctor felt like he was being compressed to death until the TARDIS compensated, and he struggled back up the console. The extrapolator shield was holding, for the moment at least, and they were angled properly to bounce right off the planet. 

\-----

"All right, Donna! Hold down that--"

"The dampener?" Donna asked; the Doctor had been showing her bits of how to fly the TARDIS, and she recognized them on the desktop. "Hold down the dampers? Won't that rip us apart?"

"Not my TARDIS," bragged the Doctor. "You just hold that down. Rose, grab right there. Yeah, and hold that open. Don't let the lever slide. You got that?"

She gave him a glare. Her leg was on the console, foot bracing the lever as her arm stretched in the opposite direction to manipulate the two toggle switches he was showing her. "I got it, Doctor." 

"Attagirl." He rubbed his hands together. "All right, everybody, hold on." The Doctor used the console controls to throw a loop of the TARDIS' engine power around the middle of the rock, tying it snug to the TARDIS gravity field. When they lifted off, the engines would help haul the meteor, too, back out into space where it could be released. 

The TARDIS shuddered and groaned, but true to the Doctor's brag, it didn't tear apart. Donna's dampeners held the gravity steady--it strained, but didn't crush them--and Rose kept the engine vents on full, letting all the excess power out to lift the rock. 

The meteor itself groaned, threw off sparks as it grated against other rock outcroppings on its way up, but eventually gave in and pulled free of the crater. Donna and Rose both cheered as hot magma welled up. 

"Don't cheer yet, folks. We got to get this monster out of the way and then we'll come back and help cool that down so the plates fuse back together," the Doctor reminded. "That'll help stabilize the fault lines and hopefully stop the worst of the aftershocks."

"Hey, watch out for the other TARDIS," Donna warned. "No need to go crashing into each other."

"Backseat driver," the Doctor accused, but he did take her words to heart, scanning the stars to locate the second TARDIS and plotted a course to the opposite side of the sky. 

Rose let out a breath of laughter; she'd never heard anyone talk to the Doctor like that, except maybe--"Doesn't she remind you of someone?" Rose shouted, eyes twinkling.

"Certainly slaps like your mother," the Doctor shot back, leaning all of his weight into pulling the directional transceiver backwards to guide the TARDIS higher and higher. 

"Standing _right_ here." 

"Hold on!" The Doctor spun the transceiver, and the TARDIS started to spin like a top. After several revolutions, to build up the momentum, the Doctor cut the engine lariat and watched the meteorite get cast off into deep space, harmless as a fly. "Now you can cheer."

Rose and Donna had beaten him to it, hugging each other and jumping up and down. "Let's go find my Doctor!" Donna demanded, even as Rose ran to hug her Doctor. 

\-----

The Doctor was almost perpendicular to the console as he pulled the extrapolator shield's harmonic converter to the maximum. The shield was glowing with the exertion, and the extrapolator itself was already smoking and sparking. "Please, just a second or two more, please," he begged the TARDIS. "Just hold it together a few more seconds." 

She was already groaning, her consoles sparking, but she was holding together for the Doctor. 

"There!" They skipped off the atmosphere with a hard bounce; his teeth rattled for the second time that day and he almost bit his tongue. The extrapolator exploded in a shower of sparks, smoke, and burned plastic, and he turned the engines to minimum right away. "Let's get landed."

The TARDIS seemed to appreciate that idea, dematerializing even as the Doctor tapped in a landing site. 

The doors opened to let out all the acrid smoke, and the Doctor emerged a few seconds later. Smoky, smudged and coughing, Donna was waiting for him. 

"Ouch." Rose and her Doctor leaned together in a cringe as Donna's palm connected with a loud crack. 

"Oi!" Donna's Doctor hadn't been expecting that. "What--"

"You left me!" Donna threw her arms around his neck, squeezing tightly. "You left me behind, you jerk. I'm the one who's supposed to help you!" 

This the Doctor liked. Hugs were better than slaps any day. "I didn't want anything to happen to you."

"The feeling is mutual, idiot." That was least of the names Donna had stored up for the Doctor, but she let it go. "Now. I think I was promised cake. And if they're still serving, I want it. I _earned_ it. And it's going to be the Diamond Cake. I don't even know what it is, but you're buying it for me."

Doctor looked at Doctor. "What do you say?" 

Rose looked at her Doctor. "Please?"

Donna just glared.

"Why not? Who am I to argue with Rose Tyler?"

"That's right." Rose linked her arm through Donna's. "Come on, Donna. You and me can pick it out, they can pay for it and carry it."

Donna nodded and linked up with Rose. "I can see why he likes you." 

That left both the Doctors standing in their wake, both sharing the same open-mouthed expression. "I don't… I don't have a good feeling about that," Donna's Doctor mused after a moment.

Rose's Doctor had a more serious question. "What happened?" He didn't even have to clarify.

"You know I can't answer that." But Donna's Doctor raised his chin to point after them. "But don't waste it. Tell her." 

"She deserves better."

Donna's Doctor turned to glare at his former self. "Maybe you ought to think about askin' her what she thinks about that. Don't be an idiot, all right?" 

Both Doctors turned at looked after Rose and Donna, who were not ordering cakes--they were helping pick people up off the floor, and Rose had one hand full holding the hand of a child. As though she could feel her Doctor's eyes on her, Rose looked up and smiled at him. 

"That's not me she's smiling at," he pointed out. "Donna!"

"Stuff it, spaceman!"

Rose's Doctor laughed softly at that. "Just tell me she lived."

"She did." Donna's Doctor could tell him that much. 

"A good life?"

"The best."

"And how did she die? When? Was it… because of me?"

"You know I can't answer that. Foreknowledge is a dangerous thing."

Rose's Doctor looked at Donna's Doctor. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

"Well, you're me. Aren't you?"

"Guess I am." He sighed. "So it lasts through the regeneration? She still…"

"Oh, yeah." A smile, there. "She loves you, big fella. Sure, the changing of the faces throws her a little bit at first, but it lasts."

They watched as the Vinalusi parent of the child Rose had found came over, took the child, and brought back a cake big enough that it took both Rose and Donna to carry it. "Oi, get over here!" Donna shouted. "Look at those two, leaving us to do the heavy lifting!"

Both Doctors sprinted over at that, helping to balance the seven layer cake. It was crowned with a scintillating baseball-sized diamond floating above the layers and casting rainbows over the frosted cake. "What in the world?"

"Well, me and Donna were helping pick up after the quake, and I found Randu there, he's the owner's son. They were so glad he was all right and that we found him, that they gave us a Diamond Cake!" A giggle as the four of them negotiated a path to the closest table to put the plate down. "Me and Donna smell cinnamon, but I smell lemon, too."

"I get apples. And molasses."

The Doctors chorused together. "Silverberry."

Four forks appeared out of the slots on the table, and they took chairs around the huge confection. "We're going to be sick if we eat all of this," Rose pointed out.

"Oh, who cares," Donna put in. "We've earned it."

"Right you have," Donna's Doctor said. He was trying very hard not to stare at Rose, and instead, stared at the giant cake that blocked his view. He was grateful for that. "We're taking some of this with us, because this is amazing." Her fork was already digging into the bottom layer. "Cinnamon and chocolate! Rose, have some of it, come on!"

Rose dug in beside Donna, and pretty soon, they were both laughing as the flavor of the cake changed with each bite. It was sometimes chocolate, sometimes cinnamon, and there was a bit of Donna's molasses cake in Rose's bites. She supposed Donna mentioning it had her thinking about it, and that's why she tasted it. 

Behind the cake, the Doctors looked at each other. The older Doctor, he supposed he was, just sat back and watched. 

"Headache?" asked Rose's Doctor.

"Yeah. New memories popping in." 

"Never thought we'd be dealing with the Foreknowledge Paradox. Can't remember an event that you're taking part of." 

"Tell me about it." They were both nibbling around the edges; the taste of silverberry was bittersweet in both their mouths. "Just do your best to forget about it. Take what comes, and enjoy it." A glare. "Don't forget what I said."

"Doctor," Rose called, and each Doctor peeked a head around the enormous cake. "My Doctor, I meant."

Donna's Doctor settled back in his chair as Rose shoved a forkful of cake into her Doctor's mouth. "Come on, Donna, we better be getting off."

"Here, take this." Rose dug through her pockets, and came up with a napkin that she wrote a mobile phone number on. "This is my number. You call me, all right, because I want to know what you're up to." 

Donna took the number, and knew she'd never use it. Never could. "I will, all right?" A quick goodbye hug, and one of the Vinalusi waiters brought them a box that fit half the Diamond Cake into it. Donna left the Diamond for Rose, and linked her elbow with her Doctor's. "Let's go, then!"

Rose watched the other Doctor leave with Donna, and waited until they were out of earshot. "Doctor, what happened?"

"Don't know. He wouldn't tell me, and he was right not to. Nobody's supposed to know what happens next." He slid his arm around her waist, and she brightened. "So, did I tell you the cake was good or what?"

The End


End file.
